Graham

Oh dear, just as I suspected the revised head laser sculpt on the VF-0S head with those widely canted head lasers looks awful in fighter mode. The lasers are angled too far out the sides. Graham

I hope the fighter pic above is not what Yamato considers to be the correct VF-0A color, as while it looks nice and I wouldn't mine owning it, it is completely wrong as far as the anime goes. The VF-0A in the anime is a sort of light beige color with tan trim. Graham

Quite like the design as is. Although, the ships seem to be covered with awfully large rust(?) patches in the first few pics. Seems like the Captain should be ordering a work detail to get out there and repaint the hull Graham

The Escaflowne's cloak was made of rubber (soft PVC). Unfortunately, it was very heavy and because of the weight has a tendency to pull the arms out of their sockets. Transformation is pretty complex, but not that difficult to master and once you've got the hang of it, it becomes second nature, like most transforming toys really. I actually wrote the English language instructions for Yamato, although I wasn't happy with them as I had to follow Yamatos photos and order of photos, which I didn't agree with. I would have much rather changed the order of the photos and added a few additional steps. Anyway, IMO it's not as bad a toy as many people claim and I think it looks good in both dragon mode and Guymelef mode. It's definitely more of a display peice though as articulation is fairly limited. Gotta say the box design was awful to. yamato's worst looking box ever. Graham

Corrected typo Graham

Nah. toynami is basically doing the same thing for me. Same here... however Toynami has been very rude and not too talkative in their communications with me and I still have no idea when my replacement will come. Heh, I bet they read all your posts in this thread Graham

The official R2 DVD of Macross Zero episode # 5 is now up for preorder at cdjapan. I've just ordered mine. Graham

One minor niggle. The F-90 and F-91 GFF share the same feet, but this is incorrect. The F-90 is supposed to have vernier jets (circle in a square shape) on the front and sides of the foot (the white area of the foot), but the GFF omits these. I'm guessing Bandai just wanted to save a bit of money, so gave the F-90 the F-91's feet, instead of sculpting the correct feet Graham

Yep as others have said, RahXephon can be described as an Eva clone, but with likeable characters and an ending that can actually be understood and makes sense . Gotta say I enjoyed RahXephon far more tha Eva, but that may be just because I'm stupid and don't actually get Eva Never watched Argento Soma, so can't comment. Graham

Please post your pics of the VF-0 & VB-6. We want as many pics as possible, whether or not they are good or crappy. Graham

Wow, that looks like a VF-19F or VF-19S conversion in that pic (dark blue and grey one in the middle).....lovely. Graham

Ahem, micro-missiles which don't stay on the launchers Graham

That seems a bit low to me, but then again I'm just going by the HK price. I have no idea what they sell for on ebay. Graham

It really depends a lot on the condition of the toy and the box. Is the box pristine? What is the condition of the toy, C-10, C-9 etc? Are the stickers applied? Are all the small parts still on their sprus? Does it still have the standing Hikaru pilot figure? Are the instructions and card still with the toy? Are the diecast metal parts untarnished? Is the toy broken in any way? Is any of the paintwork scratched? There are many things to consider! Here in Hong Kong, a mint HCM VF-1S with unapplied stickers will normally sell for about HK$3,000 to HK$3,500 last time I checked (About US$385 to US$450). Graham

Actually, I don't want to sound like the voice of doom, but I'm worried that there are not many new Macross products coming. Makes me wonder if Yamato is slowing down or losing interest in the Macross license. I mean of all the toys announced, only the 1/48 GBP is really new. Everthing else has been known about and been in development for a long time. The YF-19FP, 1/100 VF-0S, 1/60 Destroid Monster have all been in development for 1 to 2 years already. There's no 1/100 SV-51 or VF-0D, no new 1/48 VF-1 varients (VT-1 & VE-1 cough, cough), no larger perfect variable VF-0 & SV-51, no enemy mecha and Destroids in any scale announced Frankly, the Yamato Macross release schedule is looking a little threadbare compared to the past few years: - 1/60 Max Q-Rau = September 2004. 1/100 VB-6 Konig Monster = November 2004. 1/100 VF-0S = Late 2004 (TBC). 1/100 VF-0A = Release date TBC. 1/60 Destroid Monster = 2005? (Release date TBC). 1/48 GBP Armor = 2005? (Release Date TBC). YF-19FP = Release date TBC (I'll believe it when I see it). Graham

I think using the MPC Alpha and 1/100 VF-0S as examples of crap toys is a little unfair. Most of us on MW pre-ordered the Alpha assuming that it would be at least of reasonable quality. We did not order it under the assumption that it was going to be crap. In fact based on all the pre-production photos and comments of those who handled early versions at various trade shows, it appeared to be a very promising toy. We did not know at the time of pre-ordering that it would turn out to be so fragile with so many QC issues But even so, I still don't consider it a crap toy. A little over-priced and fragile yes, but not crap. I certainly have no regrets about buying it. The same applies to the Yamato VF-0S, we do not know at this time whether it is going to be a crap toy or not. It's not even released yet! Yes, the initial sculpt received a great amount of negative criticism on these boards, but Yamato have improved the sculpt and most MWers seem happy with the latest changes based on comments posted in this thread.. I for one am quite happy with the sculpt revisons and am certainly willing to buy this toy. I can't say I buy toys that I know are going to be crap. If I've seen reviews saying a toy is crap I'll probably stay away from it. However, often I do not have this luxury as I'm an impatient sort who tends to buy toys as soon as they're released. And living in HK, I can usually buy toys long before reviews start popping up on English language web sites. I think they only toys I've really been disappointed with in the past 5 years have been the Yamato YF-22FP and GBP. Graham

Congratulations on getting all that info out of Yamato Noel. It's nice to know that Yamato are still willing to talk to you, even if they no longer want to talk to me Graham

Yep, the YF-19, is very difficult to get right if you want a really nice looking one. I wrote a fairly long post a couple of month ago detailing all the problems that have to be resolved to make a YF-19 that looks good in all three modes. Can't be bothered to hunt down the post tho.

Arghhh......what about a VF-0D? That's the one most of us want! And no news of an SV-51 Graham

And I really want to know what's up with the colors on this VF-0 displayed at the other show recently? Is this color varient from ep # 5? Is it something Yamato are actually going to put into production? Graham

Even if it's the same, we still want lots more pics from as many different angles as possible Graham

Rob, if Bariaburu Faita calls you again, make sure to ask him to take lots of photos of the Yamato 1/100 VF-0S and VB-6. Also, ask him to try to ask the Yamato people the following questions, not that they'll answer, but heck it's worth a try: - How many variants of the 1/100 VF-0 are planned? Is a 1/100 SV-51 planned? Are larger scale perfect variable VF-0 & SV-51 planned? What is the next Macross release after the VB-6 and VF-0S? Is a resculpted YF-19 with FAST Packs ever coming? Is a 1/48 GBP Armor coming? Are 1/48 VT-1 & VE-1 coming? Are anymore 1/48 VF-1s planned? Is a TV Q-Rau coming? Where's Graham's VF-17D with FAST Packs? Also, if CM's have a booth, try to find out if a set # 3 of Macross figures is planned and take photos if there are any prototypes on display. And lastly, if Hasegawa have a booth, see if they have a VF-0D fighter mode prototype kit on display yet and also try to ask about the possibility of YF-19, VF-0 and SV-51 battroid mode model kits. Graham

Heh, heh, yeah I've also been hoping that it's a cover for a new Macross TV series Graham

Vaporware Graham

Just wondering has anybody heard anymore news regarding Kawamori's new 26 part TV anime series 'Sousei no Aquerion', which is supposed to be airing in Japan this Fall? Considering that it's nearly September already, it seems strange that there is so little information available about this. I would have thought by now that character and mecha pics would have started appearing in the Japanese hobby magazines. Graham